Teacher preparation programs play an essential role in this nation's elementary and secondary education system, which relies on them to recruit, select, and prepare approximately 200,000 future teachers every year. Strong programs recruit, select, and prepare teachers who have or learn the skills and knowledge they need to be hired into teaching…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that every classroom be staffed with a "highly qualified teacher." Research supports that teachers' content knowledge affects student achievement. However, the special education population continues to be taught by teachers who do not have the content area background they teach. In addition,…

The purpose of this large-scale, multi-year, national study is to determine whether some early elementary school math curricula are more effective than others at improving student math achievement, thereby providing educators with information that may be useful for making adequate yearly progress. The main questions being addressed by the study…

The new IDEIA (2004) mandates regarding the implementation of Response-to-Intervention (RtI) present challenges for general education teachers. The law dictates the implementation of Response-to-Intervention, which requires the application of a pyramid of interventions for students failing to make adequate yearly progress in response to general…

One of the most important aspects of NCLB is its demand that states ensure a "highly qualified" teacher for every student. This provision draws much-needed attention to the importance of ensuring equitable student access to high-quality teachers, write the authors. Some aspects of the provision have raised legitimate concerns--including…